One of Morgan's Men: Memoirs of Lieutenant John M. Porter of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry

8 The Fame and Glory of Morgan's Command

111 8 THE FAME AND GLORY OF MORGAN’S COMMAND General Buell was removed from command of the Federal Army of the Ohio in Nashville on October 30, 1862. In Buell’s place, the Lincoln administration named Major General William S. Rosecrans. The army would soon be renamed the “Army of the Cumberland,” a name it would proudly carry through the rest of the war. General Bragg had returned to central Tennessee ; his army, soon to be renamed the “Army of Tennessee,” occupied positions near Murfreesboro, about twenty miles southeast of Nashville. Although few men had flocked to the ranks of Bragg’s army during the invasion of Kentucky, that was not true of Morgan’s command. He had entered Kentucky with a cavalry regiment and two cavalry battalions, along with a section of artillery; he returned with six full Kentucky cavalry regiments , a Tennessee cavalry regiment, and two batteries of artillery, although some of those regiments would be assigned elsewhere. By December 1862 John Hunt Morgan was commissioned a brigadier general and commanded a division of cavalry composed of two brigades, one brigade consisting of four regiments and the other consisting of three regiments. To each brigade was assigned an artillery battery. On Sunday, December 14, Morgan married Martha “Mattie” Ready at her home in Murfreesboro. It was a splendid occasion attended by virtually all of the prominent commanders of the Army of Tennessee. ONE OF MORGAN’S MEN 112 It did not take long for Bragg to discover Rosecrans’s intentions; Federal probes out the Murfreesboro Pike were frequent. Rosecrans’s army was being continually augmented with additional troops and supplies by means of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad from its supply base at Louisville. If Rosecrans was to be defeated, or even slowed, that supply line had to be put out of service. Morgan and his command were given that critically important mission. Morgan put his division in motion toward Kentucky on December 22, while Rosecrans was preparing his army for an offensive against Bragg that would erupt near Murfreesboro on December 31. Morgan’s destination was the trestles of the L&N between Lebanon Junction and Elizabethtown, Kentucky. In that region the construction of the L&N, completed in 1859, ran into difficulty getting the tracks through the Muldraugh escarpment, a range of rough hills or knobs that extend from West Point, Kentucky, on the Ohio River to the Tennessee border that define the bluegrass region of Kentucky to the east and the higher western plains of Kentucky to the west. To negotiate the tracks through the Muldraugh—and to keep the roadbed at the proper grade—the L&N built a series of trestles, sixty feet high and generally between 300 and 350 feet long. The trestles were protected by log stockades manned by Federal troops. The destruction of those trestles would shut down the L&N for months. Morgan marched his division to Tompkinsville, Glasgow, Cave City, Munfordville, and Elizabethtown, damaging the L&N tracks and bridges at Bacon Creek (now Bonnieville) and Nolin. He fought his way through the streets of Elizabethtown. Then, between Elizabethtown and Lebanon Junction, Morgan torched the trestles of the L&N, doing tremendous damage , and forced the capitulation of hundreds of Federal troops. Returning to Tennessee was more difficult than entering Kentucky. Chased by a brigade of Federal infantry, cavalry, and artillery under the command of Colonel John M. Harlan, Morgan fought a rear guard action at Rolling Fork (near present-day Boston, Kentucky), where Colonel Duke was badly wounded. With sleet falling and the temperature below freezing, Morgan then withdrew by way of Bardstown to Springfield and to the Muldraugh by a route west of Lebanon, Kentucky. Passing through Campbells- THE FAME AND GLORY OF MORGAN’S COMMAND 113 ville, Morgan’s columns rode to Columbia, Kentucky, and finally returned to Smithville, Tennessee, on January 5, 1863, with at least three different Federal columns trying to catch up with them. Time again arrived for action. The great historic fight of Murfreesboro was imminent and we had daring, dangerous and wild work to perform. We moved again to the front and met our newly commissioned Brigadier General John H. Morgan at Murfreesboro. He had a few days before married Miss Martha Ready of that place.1 The regiment to which I belonged was filled to its proper size about this time by the addition of Major Robert G. Stoner ’s Battalion, all Kentuckians. Stoner had...